Browning was below the medimn height. in clining to stoutness, with a ruddy complexion, large and bright gray eyes, fine features, a quick ness of speech and gait, and a magnetic address which together with his liberal sympathy with humanity enabled him to mingle freely with all classes. llis love for Italy was as deep and intel ligent as that of his wife, and from that 'land of lands' he drew the 'inspiration for ninny of his finest poems; though the fact that his grand father was a German is recalled by his tendency to Hegelian philosophizing and by his question ing and speculative habit of mind, as well as by peculiarities of syntax and vocabulary.
What is called the obscurity of Browning's poetry is the characteristic that first strikes ordinary readers, and in many cases discourages them from further study. It may be admitted that he was often careless of artistic, and even of grammatical finish—that if it came to a choice, he valued substance above form; but the ob scurity is often more apparent than real, and, where it exists, springs usually from the marvel ous richness and fullness of his thought, and from the rapidity of his mental proeess. which passes from point to point more swiftly than the average mind can follow, careless, sometimes. of making the connection clear. The effort. how ever, which is necessary to apprehend him is not only a valuable mental tonic, lint is frequently rewarded by the discovery of real and satisfying thought. The vast erudition of the poet, and his habit of casual allusion to things met with in out-of-the-way parts of his wide reading, also contribute to the impression of obscurity; but these difficulties are not sufficient to prevent his recognition as being, in his double capacity of poet and thinker, one of the most powerful influ ences on the spiritual and mental life of our age. It is possible that the choke of a vehicle of expression which was forced upon him by the time of his birth was in sonic degree an unfor tunate one. Had he lived in the age of Shake speare (next to whom he has been ranked for insight into the springs of human character and action), his genius, which was essentially dra matic, might more naturally and adequately have expressed itself in the form which characterized that period; or had he begun to write half a cen tury later than he did, after the development of the psychological novel, lie would very possibly have chosen to express in prose the vast range of thought on whose 'utterance the limitations of metrical law have sometimes imposed burdensome restrictions.
But such speculations are less important than the recognition of the qualities which he actually possessed, and which make him a vital force. Not least among them must be reckoned his un swerving optimism. at which Tennyson gravely shook his head, calling it 'depressing,' lint which has been the inspiration of many another soul. Ile saw with the utmost clearness how eternally insoluble is 'the riddle of the painful earth': lie was the last who would have delighted fatuously in the arrangements of this as the best of all possible worlds; yet to the end he (-mild describe himself, in the epilogue of his last published book, as •Inie who never doubted clouds would break.
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph: we Wit. rise, are battled to fight better, sleep to wake.• An inevitable comparison is suggested by the mention of Tennyson, whose name was generally, in their lifetime, coupled with Browning's. Their first books were published within six years, and the relations between them were always of the utmost cordiality and friendliness, untouched by any suspicion of the jealousy which might have alfe•ted smaller minds. The contrast in
their style was happily defined in the aphorism of Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Tennyson is the light meat, Browning the dark." The laureate had a smoothness, a finish, and a grace which Browning rarely displays. though he showed at times that he could attain it; but from the cloying sweetness of Tennyson's I'ergilian verses many will turn to the more manly and satisfy ing, if more rugged, tone of the robuster poet. The force of the first of these comparative epi thets will be seen at once by recalling the attitude of the unsuccessful lovers in "Maud" and "Locks ley Hall" on the one side and "The Last Ride Together" on the other.
If the Romantic movement be taken to stand for the assertion of the individual. his rights and his liberties, against the conventional order of the centuries, then Browning was essentially a Romantic. Strongly influenced as he was in his early years by Shelley, he preached a similar gas 1.el of freedom from all restraints that binder the growth of natural character. It was the 'life of typical souls' that be set himself to write; and always it is the typical soul that interests him— whether struggling to emerge from the confining bands of the mediaeval system, or expanding amidst all the intricate complexities of modern life, which he loved precisely because it made the game harder to play, and thus more of an intel lectual exercise. Indeed, though he chose his subjeets frequently from the bygone centuries, partly W011 by their picturesque quality and part ly obeying the fashion of his time, even in the mediaeval period it was always the character which he sought to reproduce rather than. like Rossetti. the environment. Typical souls, whether good or evil in the world's estimation: men or women indifferently (and that he could read the one as unerringly as the other needs no fur ther witness than the poignant truth of his anal ysis of a woman's heart in the poem "In a Year")—these were his subjects, and in the life of those souls, eminent moments, as Dowden puts it—"moments when life, caught up out of the ways of custom and low levels of prudence, takes its guidance and inspiration from a sudden dis covery of truth through some high ardor of the heart." Browning as a poet may most fitly be classed with George Meredith as a novelist and Wagner as a composer. .Alike.decried as obscure and unintelligible, they have all come to lie rec ognized by the thoughtful as supreme; and they are alike in their power to satisfy the deepest intellectual cravings with a fullness which is utterly beyond the power of their more popular rivals. The Browning Society, established in London in I SSI (four years after Professor Cor son had founded the Cornell Browning Cluh), and time similar organizations throughout Eng land and the United States, have by their discus sions and publications done much to advance the study of his works.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Only a few titles from the Bibliography. Only a few titles from the immense literature on Browning can be given here: Browning Society Papers (London, 1881 91) ; Berdoe, Studies (London. 1895) : Symons, Introduction to the Study of Browning (London, 188G) ; Orr, Handbook (New York, 1892) : Por ter and Clark, Browning Study Programmes (New York, 1900) ; Cook, Browning Guide-Book (New York, 1891) ; Nettleship, Ro;art Br au Essays and Thoughts (London, 1890) ; Fotheringham, Studies (London, 189S) ; neux. Browning Phrase-Book (Boston, ISM) ; Little, Essays (London, 1899) ; Orr, Life and Letters (New York, 1891) : Sharp, Life (Lon don, 1890) : Gosse, Pcrsonalia (New York, 1890) : Waugh, Robert Browning ( London, 1900). See also BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT.